Salima Rabiu- Statement of Interest
Season of Docs 2024 - Wikimedia Foundation
Personal Information
- Name: Salima Rabiu
- Email: eemarabs@gmail.com
- LinkedIn: Salima Rabiu
- Portfolio
Professional Information
About Me
I am a Frontend Developer passionate about technical writing, my journey into technical writing started off as an interest in breaking down complex software development concepts/processes for friends and individuals within my community who had an interest in programming but weren’t tech savvy enough to, from having in-person tutorials with them, I moved to write down roadmaps on Medium and so far I have quite a number of helpful articles on my Medium Profile.
Throughout my career, I have explored various aspects of technology, including DevOps, software development, and product management. These experiences have not only broadened my technical skills but also deepened my ability to communicate complex information effectively.
In late 2022, I discovered Google Summer of Docs and applied in the following year but never made it to any of the projects I applied, I went on to sharpen my skills and have since expanded my knowledge across various technologies, engaged with different communities, and contributed to open-source projects that have improved my technical writing abilities.
Technical Writing Experiences
- Medium blog
- Metal3.io open-source contributions
- https://github.com/metal3-io/metal3-docs/pulls?q=is%3Apr+author%3ASafeEHA+is%3Aclosed
- https://github.com/metal3-io/metal3-io.github.io/pulls?q=is%3Apr+author%3ASafeEHA+is%3Aclosed
- Article for DevOps Consulting organization HostSpace Cloud Solutions and Metal3.io
Skills
Technical
- Web Development: Experienced in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, with extensive understanding of React to build and maintain responsive websites.
- Documentation Tools: Skilled in using Markdown for writing and formatting technical documentation. Familiar with Confluence and Notion for project documentation and collaboration.
- Version Control: Experienced in using Git for version control to manage and collaborate on project codebases effectively.
- Productivity Software: Expertise in Google Workspace tools, for efficient collaboration and communication in remote environments.
Soft Skills
- Presentation and Verbal Communication: Strong command of the English language, excellent communication and presentation skills
- Technical Writing: Proofreading skills with meticulous attention to detail. Expertise in breaking down complex technical topics to make them accessible to varied audiences, from novices to experienced professionals.
- Continuous Learning: Staying updated with emerging technologies and tools to enhance productivity and documentation quality.
Software Development Methodologies
- Agile Practices: Experience working flexibly and collaboratively in fast-paced development environments and adapting to changing project needs.
Product Management
- Minor experience assisting in project planning and execution within a technical context, complementing my skills in software development and technical writing.
Project Information
Project Title
Consolidating and Organizing MediaWiki Documentation
Approach
To consolidate and organize the Mediawiki documentation, I have taken the first step to familiarize myself with the problem ( I must commend Mediawiki contributors for putting together such well-detailed documentation ). It took me a few days to find some pages but so far, I am performing an audit of pages on Metawiki that do and don’t exist on Mediawiki (generating a list here) and pages on Metawiki containing content for Mediawiki that can’t be moved because of the GFDL and CC-BY-SA license restrictions. I plan to work closely with Mediawiki Technical writers and contributors (have facilitated conversations on the Libera chat platform) to understand these restriction further and provide a workaround if none exists already
With the help of the Mediawiki community, I also plan to optimize these pages not just move them around, I have been conducting some research on the Creative Commons license restrictions and I plan to tailor the creation of pages that exist in Metawiki but aren’t on Mediawiki to fit Creative Common and GNU Free Documentation License regulations.
My Solution
In my previous contributions to Metal3.io one of my core responsibility was reorganizing some pages in their documentation and I believe that experience is so far helping me map out the best strategy to address this project. I have already begun familiarizing myself with Metawiki and Mediawiki to fully understand the distinction in content. Through close communication with the Mediawiki documentation team, I hope to have a full list of these unconsolidated pages within the next few weeks. I plan to automate the organization process of this project with scripts to reduce human error and ease any reorganizations in the future.
From personal experience, I have found teamwork is very essential to the success of every project so I would be in open, transparent communication with the Mediawiki documentation team through sharing regular updates, and asking questions to align my work with the requirements of Mediawiki community and users.
Timeline
| Phase | Duration | Dates | Activities |
| Project Kickoff and Onboarding | 2 weeks | May 20 - June 1 | Establish communication, review my compiled list of unconsolidated pages and analyze the project in more detail with mentors. |
| Phase 1: De-duplication | 4 weeks | June 2 - June 29 | Use the compiled list of duplicated pages on Metawiki, identify MediaWiki equivalents, and remove these equivalents on Metawiki |
| Phase 2: New Content | 9 weeks | June 30 - August 31 | Write new content for MediaWiki for pages existing only on Metawiki, reviews and update cycle of content with mentors, final publish. |
| Phase 3: Organize | 4 weeks | September 1 - September 29 | Review Wikimedia-specific content on Meta, update information architecture, and implement changes. |
| Phase 4: User feedback | 2 weeks | September 30 - October 12 | QnA sessions/surveys with community members and users to gather feedback |
| Project Wrap-Up | 2 weeks | October 13 - October 26 | Implement user feedback, complete cleanup tasks, identify any follow-up work, and write the final project report. |
Availability and Proposed Budget
For this project, I am prepared to dedicate 25-30 hours per week. Understanding the dynamic nature of the project’s demands, I am flexible and willing to adjust my schedule and increase my hours as needed to ensure that we meet or even exceed the project's goals.
Seeing the complexity of the tasks involved and the dedication I plan to bring to ensure the successful completion of this project, I am proposing $10,000 which I believe aligns with the project’s outlined budget, I am however open to discussing this to ensure it meets the needs of all parties involved.